Improvement in harvesters



- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WM. K. MILLER, OF CANTON, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN HARVESTERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 22,885, dated February R, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM K. MILLER, .of

f Canton, in the county of Stark and State of the same, reference being had to the accompany ing drawings, making a part of this specification, in Which- Figurelrepresents a perspective view of the machine with the covering removed to show the gearing, te. Fig. 2 represents a top view of a portion of the frame, and the connection of the finger-bar thereto. Fig. 3 represents a vertical section through the frame and iinger-bar, and a portion of their connections.

Similar letters of reference where they occnr in the several figures denote like parts of the machine in all of them.

My invention relates, first, to the manner of connecting the nger-bar to the frame of the machine'through the intervention of a rockshaft, so that it may swing up over or underneath said frame; and, secondly, to an adjustable hinge-.pla te, at or near the point of connection between the linger-bar and the braces.

To .enable others skilled in the-art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the same with reference to the drawings. I

A pair of supporting and driving wheels, A A, are so connected to an axle, B, by a.- ratchet and pawl, a b, as to turn with or independent ot' said axle, as circumstances may require.

The main frame C, which is of quadrangnlar form, is supported on or by the axle B, so as to be as nearly balanced thereon as will best conduce (with the driver or operator in his seat) to an efficient operation of its parts.

On the axle B there is a cog-wheel, D, which takes into a pinion, c, on a shaft, e, suitably supported in bearings on the main frameU; and this shaftethus receives its motion. The

end of the shaft d to a wrist-pin, in which one end of the pitman or connecting-rod G is attached, the other end thereof being attached to a stud or projection, g, on the end of the cutter-bar, to give motion to the cutters h.

In the hangers ff are also supported the journals k of a rocking bar, H, to' which the two braces I J are firmly attachedby their ends l 2, respectively, the other ends, 3 4,

thereof being also (when properly adjusted) rigidly attached to the hinge-plate K; and where the braces I J cross each other they are also rigidly united, as seen at 5.- lt will be perceived from this union ofthe parts just above described, that any motion which the hinge-plate K and the braces I J may have is solely through the rocking of the bar Hon its journals, and that though they thus constitute a rigid frame-work to properly support the finger-bar, yet they have all the free play or motion necessary to allow the finger-bar to rise and fall to all the undulations of the ground, or to be raised and lowered and held at any desired height above the ground, or to beraised up and and folded over onto the frame O, or to be swung underneath the main frame, or even t0 putting the cutting apparatus on the left-hand side of the machine, as some users prefer having it, and as will be hereinafter explained.

The hingefplate K may be connected to the brace J at the point 7 by a pivot, on which it may turn as a center; or this pivot may pass through a slot in said hinge-plate, if found essential, so that said plate may be raised or lowered thereon at its rear portion, as well as at its front end, but generally the adjustment at its front will be found ample, and then the rear portion can turn on its pivot 7. Slots 8 8 are cut through the hinge-plate K for the the finger-bar M is firmly connected by one of its ends, thc'other end being similarly connected to the outer shoe or divider, N. The

joints made by Jthe separate pivots o o may be as well made by a single rod passing through both sets o f lugs, and would be more readily removed when it is desirable to detach the shoe L for any purpose.

O is thetongue, to which the team is hitched, and P is the drivers seat.

Q is a segmental ratchet, pivoted at r to a bar,p, that is fast to or a part of the main frame; and R is a handle or lever attached to the ratchet and extending back to a position convenient for the driver to grasp from'his seat. There is a tooth, s, on the plate p, upon which the notches of the rachet will take and hold when forced in by the lever, so as to catch and hold at any desired height. A cord or chain, t, connects the bar J to this segmental rack Q, and thus the driver or conductor from his seat can raise up and let down the lingerbar at pleasure, or arrange it at any proper height and cause it to be held at such regulated height.

'Ihe pawls bb are spring-and-pivot pawls, so that they can be thrown into and out of action and held in either position by said springs, so that the jarring of the machine will not at'- fect them. The hinge-plate K is not affected by any rising or falling motion of the fingerbar, as it passes over and yields to the undulations or inequalities of the ground over which it is drawn when cutting, for, as seen in Fig. 3, the shoe and finger-bar L M can rise without changing the position of the said hingeplate, they simply playing on their hinge-joints, while the hin ge-plate is rigidly fastened to the braces I J, and can only move when they move, and the motion which these braces in turn have is that only which they receive through ythe rocking bar H.

The finger-bar can be raised up and folded over` onto the main frame for transportation, if it is desirable to do so; and the whole machine may be transposed by swinging the braces, hinge-plate, shoes, and'tinger-bar and cutters underneath the frame and to its opposite side. Then detach the hingeplate from the braces of the frame, and bring the seat back to what p was before the front of the machine, and the harvester has been converted from one which had its cutting apparatusin the front to one which has its cutting apparatus at the rear of the frame, and this, too, without any additional pieces being taken away or added to the machine, and in both these positions the cutting apparatus will be on the right-hand side of the driver.

The machines if made left hand,7 as it is termed, may undergo the same changes of position of the cutting portions; but to change from right to left on the same machine would require the removal of some and the substitution of other parts, which would be in effect making another machine, and not converting it in its entirety from a front to a rear cutting machine, and vice versa, by simply turning around or reversing'the same parts. In my case I may say that I simply turn over or reverse the several parts to effect the above-described object, and do not add to them or take away anything essential to the change and the operation of the machinein either of its changes lfrom front to rear, or vice versa.

-Having thus fully described the nature and object of myinvention, what I claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The combination of the bracesand rocking bar, substantially as and for the purpose 

